Sorting hat/houses

sbursztynski greatraven at hotmail.com
Sat Aug 11 02:59:30 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 175087

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "CK Campbell" <ckc at ...> wrote:
>
> I've been wondering about the sorting hat and Dumbledore's comment 
to Snape
> that perhaps they sort too soon.  I *think* what Dumbledore was 
saying was
> that Snape might have made a good Gryffindor as well -- just as 
the sorting
> hat thought that Harry would make a decent Slytherin but took his 
preference
> and put him in Gryffindor.
>  
> Surely, there are many children sorted into one house when they 
could have
> done a fine job in other houses.  What if they just don't work out 
in that
> house?  Is it possible, do you think, for the student to change 
houses?  Or
> are you stuck where the sorting hat has put you?  I'd like to 
think that
> Dumbledore would recognize that people change, and that despite 
the hat's
> initial reading of that student, another house might be more 
suitable.
>  
> And what of parental influence?  What if Draco had been placed in
> Hufflepuff?  Would his parents have been able to get him shifted 
over to
> Slytherin?
>  
>>  
> Carolyn

Sue here:

Very good post, Carolyn! I have just re-read the first book and when 
you find yours, you will be able to confirm this: the Sorting Hat 
does take children's preferences into account, not just Harry's. 
Hermione says she hopes she'll be in Gryffindor, though she wouldn't 
object to Ravenclaw, so that's where she goes, despite her main 
trait being her brains. Sirius's parents are no doubt furious that 
he got sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin, but it's his 
preferences that matter, not theirs, so parental influence probably 
isn't that important, otherwise they might have got him changed. 
(Not that they wouldn't have tried, but with Dumbledore as 
headmaster, it's unlikely they would have succeeded). Draco wants to 
be in Slytherin. The young Snape, in Book 7, automatically assumes 
he'll be in Slytherin, even though, as Dumbledore implies, he might 
have made a good Gryffindor (and been spared a lot of grief and 
pain, through not associating with the Death Eaters in his House). 
He hopes that Lily will also be sorted into Slytherin so that they 
can be together. For that matter, Slughorn can't understand why she 
wasn't in his House, with her streak of mischief! ;-)

Cheers!
Sue
>






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